Originally Posted by nayr497

Dear tony, just keep in mind that a large portion of the people in this subforum don't ride bicycles far enough, long enough, or often enough to be cognizant of performance differences. Most of the people in here are relatively new to cycling, or are doing it for the first time since they were 12 and are not necessarily driven/focused on performance. As long as their bicycle makes them look a certain way in whatever city they live in or on whatever campus they are on, they could care less if the bottom bracket is full of sand or if their saddle-to-bar drop gives them incredible neck pain.

A good illustration of how inconsequential performance is can be demonstrated by the fact that people continually put Vittoria Zaffiros on their bikes, even nice ones like Makinos, because they come in all white. They have something like 60 tpi, when for the same price you can get Vittoria or Continentals with 250 tpi or more.

Just keep that in mind.

To answer the question: really nice tires can completely change the feel of a bike. Riding clipless is a revolution and makes cycling more fun and allows you to go faster.